A general object of the present disclosure, in accordance with one aspect of the disclosure, is to provide a container with an optically readable particle pattern to provide an attractive marker that is resistant to tampering therewith, for tracking, anti-counterfeiting, or other purposes.
The present disclosure embodies a number of aspects that can be implemented separately from or in combination with each other.
A method of manufacturing glass containers in accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure includes producing a glass melt, forming glass containers from the glass melt, coding the glass containers by applying particles to the glass containers so that the particles bond with the containers to form unique optically readable patterns, and annealing the glass containers.
In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method of marking a container for tracking or other purposes, which includes the step of introducing particles onto a wall surface of the container while the container wall is hot so that the particles bond with the container wall to form a readable random pattern.
In accordance with a further aspect of the disclosure, a particle-coded container includes a body extending from a base, a shoulder extending from the body, and particles of various shapes and sizes in a random pattern carried by at least one of the base, body, shoulder, or neck.